Jinapark's List: Humanities - Digital Life Research

• • The paper is related to my topic as it lists various problems created associated with the brain and using computers in different ways and purposes like multitasking. 
    
    
    
    This site is made by DANA Foundation, an organization comprised of scientists expertise at brains, with the purpose of raising awareness to the public about the progress and new findings of 'responsible' brain research. 
    
    
    
    Publishing date: August 26, 2008 which is not that recent - New research needs to be provided to add onto facts on this site.
• Several independent research groups have reported evidence that, at the level of neural systems, multitasking actually entails rapid switching from one task to another. Each switch exacts a toll, at least doubling the time it takes to complete a task and decreasing both the level of performance and the ability to recall what you were doing later on. Study after study has found that multitasking degrades the quality of learning

  • Useful because it discusses about multitasking (a "skill" many use to do many more things in a small amount of time) can be bad for your brain. 
    
    
    
    Large body of solid evidence formulate proof that dividing the brain's attention between more than one task simultaneously will reduce your efficiency and performance. Brains can only focus on one thing at a time and forcing it to do many will lower work quality as it lacks the capacity to perform both successfully. Multitasking means no deep thinking, deliberation or abstract thinking thus no creativity in neither work. Multitasking will indeed harm your ability to concentrate, recall info, and will slow skill of switching from one task to another. 
• So-called “social cognition,” which encompasses such things as the ability to form impressions of others, make inferences about their intentions, gauge their emotional reactions and adjust your actions accordingly, is another complex skill that relies on the pre-frontal cortex, the brain’s forward-most and last-to-develop region. Like other high-level cognitive functions, mastery of these skills requires practice. “If you don’t have sufficient in-person practice, that has got to be handicapping you in some way,” said Grafman.

  • Always using computers for communication might make you feel awkward with real living people without the extra time to think about what to type or without the time to process what he/she said. 

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• • The article and video is useful to my topic because it debates about the positive and negative impacts of using technology on the brains of the young students at school.
    
    
    
    The article contains two contradicting arguments of two kindergarten teachers. Kim Myers who uses technology in all areas in her classroom and Laurie Clark who thinks this is improper and quotes from the the neuroscientist Dr. Small. 
    
    
    
    This video and article from 9News Education Nation is updated (May 20, 2013)

• "When they spend a lot of time with the technology searching online, they're sort of training their brains to teach the way they search," Small said.

   

   When young kids use technology, Small says it does strengthen information processing in the brain.

   

   "The downside is, our face-to-face human contact skills; looking someone on the eye, noticing the emotional expression on a face; those neural wires are weakening," Small said.

  • Computers hinders the students from developing brain power that could happen through more positive activities than technology. Computers at a young age can be very problematic for their brain development as their brains are elastic and changes easily - neuroplasticity.  

• "What we teach at our school is human interaction, social skills, social-emotional," Lucas said.

   

   What they do at their school is tie different parts of the brain through movement and information.

   

   "The more that the students have to make alternative routes or alternative paths, the more they develop these paths; the neural connections in brain," Lucas said.

   

   Clark says teachers like to teach life, not computers to kindergartners.

   

   "So, what we're trying to do in early childhood is make a foundation for learning to take place," Clark said.

   

   Clark says students learn to struggle. They learn to solve problems. They learn grit.

  • This information is useful because it is talking about how computers have no place in a classroom full of young wildly developing brains and other brain provoking energizing activities should be what the students are doing. 

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• • This article from the newspaper, The Telegraph, is related to my topic because the shocking fact about the amount of hours an average kids spends in front of a screen shows how much modern children are playing computer games and this puts physical damage on their brain structure.
    
    
    
    The journalist of this article is a science correspondent called Nick Collins. The information in the article is from several source mainly from the Royal Institution, an organization devoted to science. 
    
    
    
    Date Published: Oct 14th, 2011. It is pretty up to date but should be used mixed and verified with more recent research too.
• Technology that plays strongly on the senses – like video games – can   literally "blow the mind" by temporarily or permanently   deactivating certain nerve connections in the brain, the Baroness said.

  • Talks about the impact on brain of people doing computer games:
    
    
    
    Brain are designed to adapt to its environment it is exposed in like mastering a local language.The brains of the children adapt to the new environment of excessive amount of computer games without any nonelectrical activities and this makes certain nerve connections of the inner brain sedentary by disconnecting it. This will result to children who are not able to pay attention in school. To help these children and their brain, they should be out surrounded by nature.
• Screen technologies cause high arousal, which in turn activates the   brain system’s underlying addiction and reward, resulting in the attraction   of yet more screen-based activity
• too many computer games could cause a   shorter attention span and more reckless behaviour in children
• internet addiction could rewire brain structures in the inner brain
• But other scientists have claimed that certain games can help the brain in a   variety of ways such as treating post-traumatic stress disorder, boosting   intelligence and developing the memory

  • a controverting point 

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• • The site is useful as it suggests that too much screen time with young toddlers who have the most rapid growth of brains will not help and even delay brain development. 
    
    
    
    This article is written at October 5, 2013 which is finely up to date
    
    The article is by Jill Stark, a reporter specialized in family and education, talking about warnings of experts on this subject. 
• Because [screens] are mobile they are able to be taken anywhere, which increases their use and can be key in displacing other activities and engaging with others

  • Many teenagers and children take phones and computers everywhere to watch videos on youtube which is a very passive activity where the kids don't control and manipulate anything which means no development of brain in any sense. 

• His latest research based on brain imaging studies found people who play a lot of online games, particularly violent games, were risking damage to their frontal lobe.

  This part of the brain helps people consider consequences, plan for the future and make executive decisions, he said.

  Brains were most susceptible during early puberty, when they were "wiring up at a furious rate" and growing capacity.
• "All of the research indicates that not only are video games not cathartic, but [they] would increase aggressive behaviour. If you upset a heavy gamer, they can be pretty aggressive."

• Game developers purposefully create scenarios that flow continuously, reward with instant feedback and have some level of frustration or near miss, he said.

  "Those are the things that keep you going back to the games. Those are the things that we now know in the brain studies . . . are immensely rewarding and pleasurable to the brain."

  • Games are purposefully made to keep the attention of the brain and make the children come back and do it more which is going to harm them more and more as they get mesmerized into the electronic world for hours.  

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• • Relevance: The article is about how internet addiction is similar to substance addiction and damages the same region (white matter) 
    Author: Jeremy Laurance - a writer on health issues and has covered the specialism for more than 20 years 
    Date: Jan. 12th, 2012 - pretty recent 
• The results showed impairment of white matter fibres in the brain connecting regions involved in emotional processing, attention, decision making and cognitive control. Similar changes to the white matter have been observed in other forms of addiction to substances such as alcohol and cocaine.

• • This article is valid to my topic as it suggests that the high level of screen time is having bad impacts on the health and cognitive development of children. Using computers is not only concerning because of the prolonged time of being still and inactive but also as it is more than probable to get addicted or depressed in some form. 
    
    The article is trustworthy because it is from the strongly reliable organization: BBC News that many citizens rely on for daily info and is about real studies done by professors on the topic. The name of the author, an education family reporter is on the page and it was last updated on 2012, Oct. 9th which is relatively up to date. 
• a child born today will have spent a full year glued to screens by the time they reach the age of seven

• But he suggests the effects go further than those simply associated with being sedentary for long periods.

   

  He says prolonged screen time can lead to reductions in attention span because of its effects on the brain chemical dopamine.

   

  Dopamine is produced in response to "screen novelty", says Dr Sigman.

   

  It is a key component of the brain's reward system and implicated in addictive behaviour and the inability to pay attention.

  • Giving a young child too much screen novelty, increases the amount of brain chemical dopamine (key component of the reward system) produced, making the kid dependent on screen media; wanting more and more screen time to satisfy the need for more dopamine. 
• And there are other psychosocial problems associated with excess screen time. These include "Facebook depression", reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which develops when young people spend too much time on social media sites and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.

  • Many teenagers use computers for connecting with friends through social networking websites and this can cause them to be in depression. 
• A lot of screen material is not well designed for a child's cognitive processes, eg loud, fast changing stimulation - this is attention grabbing, but does not help processing.

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• • The article has many info about how computer addiction has negative effects on the brain which relates to my topic (high computer use on brain development and reasons to be concerned). 
    
    
    
    The article is written by a normal reporter (Sarah Harris) and is about neurologists in China who should be experts, and the article is part of the Mail Online which is the website for a real newspaper called Daily Mail, same info found in other news articles too.
    
    
    
    The publishing date is okay, reasonably up to date. July 18th, 2011.
• Scientists discovered signs of atrophy of grey matter in the brains of heavy internet users that grew worse over time.

  • By comparing MRI scans of online addicts and controlled teenagers' brains, revealed that the grey matter (the wrinkly part which processes memory, emotions, speech etc.) of all computer addicted people's brains showed atrophy - shrinking or loss of tissue. The longer the time of addiction continued, the atrophy and change of the brain was worse. 
• affect their concentration and memory, as well as their ability to make decisions and set goals
• there’s a very clear relationship between the number of years these young people have been addicted to the internet and changes in their brains

  • The long term addiction of IAD (internet addict disorder) teenagers who spend so much of their time using computers - surfing the internet for entertainment purposes like playing games - is distorting the structure of their young brains.

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• • The article relates to my topic as high computer use has big affects on the amount of sleep people get especially for teens. It states that lack of sleep is a phenomenal problem for your brain.
    
    This article on the National Post (a Canadian national newspaper) is written by Dr. Aw, a medical director of a leading preventive health clinic, confirming an expert as he has helped many patients with sleep problems and its neurological effects. 
    
    The date published is very recent; September 15, 2014.
• When the researchers analyzed the data, they discovered that poor sleepers tended to have smaller portions of key areas of the brain. The speculation here is that sleeping poorly over a long period of time — the span measured in the study was 3.5 years — can actually shrink some key portions of your brain, including those involved in reasoning abilities and executive functions.

  • Many people especially teens are not able to sleep and are staying awake because of the lure of stimulation activities on computers like the internet and friends (also teenagers) texting them, all night. These teens who can't take themselves away from their computers will have shrunken important portions of their brains, altering its shape and causing problems with functions of each portion such as solving problems and connecting to the past for planning to organizing
• Avoid tablet computers or TV screens in the bedroom. Instead, read a book before bed, or start your bedtime routine with a nice, relaxing bath.

  • These teens as researchers recommend, just can't avoid computers. The addiction gets to the point where people are staying awake, staring wide eyed at a computer screen all night, only getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep. Giving no time for their brain to rest and avert over-activating as working the whole day to weeks.
• A good night’s sleep is a serious matter. Down time and restoration is not just good for the soul — it’s what your brain needs regularly.

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• • This article is related to my topic as it is claiming computer games (one of the main usage of computing for many teenagers) damages the development of their brains and why this is a problem to our society. 
    
    
    
    Tracy McVeight, an education editor and a reporter for TheGuardian (a professional american newspaper), wrote the article about a professional research done by an expert, Professor Kawashima. 
    
    
    
    The article is not recent, Published date: Aug. 19th, 2001. The computer games could have improved and changed during recent years, more research with modern tech could have been processed. But it can still be used stating the date to show the progress of research done and what we knew already. 
• Most worrying of all was that the frontal lobe, which continues to develop in humans until the age of about 20, also has an important role to play in keeping an individual's behaviour in check.

  • After many hi-tech studies, the results prove that playing computer games for a long period of time means the teens' frontal lobes of brains are not getting activated. They are not thickening the fibers of neurons on either side of the frontal lobe. This means they will not be able to control inappropriate behaviors like violence well.   The fighting contents of a game makes people more aggressive generally but it was more to do with the damage on the brain.
• The students who played computer games were halting the process of brain development and affecting their ability to control potentially anti-social elements of their behaviour.

  • Computer games (in contrast with other activities like arithmetic and reading) do not benefit the brain and the kid's maturity but reduces the activeness and slows - holds back- the development. It causes the teenagers to be less sociable in their surroundings. 
• 'The implications are very serious for an increasingly violent society and these students will be doing more and more bad things if they are playing games and not doing other things like reading aloud or learning arithmetic.'
• play outside with other children and interact and to communicate with others as much as possible. This is how they will develop, retain their creativity and become good people

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• • The article discusses the compelling impact of social network replacing real life face to face communication on the teenager's brains that causes concerning problems like not being able to read other's facial expressions. 
    
    
    
    This website (More4kids) consist of articles to help in parenting teenagers. This article is written by a parent called Stephanie Partridge who is warning other parents about this issue based on a psychology doctor, Dr. Jenn. The .info in URL shows the site is for sharing factual information. 
    
    
    
    The specific publishing date is not stated on the page, it is only possible to know it is before the year 2010. However, this article's content is timeless. The situation of teens and social network has just constantly become worse to the modern years. It can be used if mentioned as data found before. 
• Research conducted and published by Stanford University, indicates that our brains are being not only affected, but actually altered as a result of frequent computer use.  The human brain processes information differently when that information comes from a computer.  This altered form of processing actually erodes the brain's hardwired ability to read the facial expressions of people.

  • Useful because it talks about how computer use affects part of brain that makes it hard to read facial expressions, already acknowledging that teenagers' brains are underdeveloped can't read facial expressions that well in the first place. 
• They are not exposed to voices, inflections in tone, facial expressions and body language.  In short, our children are missing out on the great growth experiences that come from a real life connection with a three dimensional, real life person.

  • Teenagers log on to the virtual world of instantaneous messages to digital books on computers and easily secludes themselves from the real world with real life human contact (dehumanizing effect). This limited face to face social interaction stops the stimulation of curiosity and exploration and thus the enhancement of brain development. Teenagers need a healthy balance of many different activities including regular face to face interaction that engages different areas of the brain. They need to play which itself grows the brain. 
• social networks, email and the internet do help keep kids connected and exposes them to a vast amount of information

  • Positive effect: we are also able to receive colossal amount of new knowledge through the internet that gets stored inside our brain making it develop in complexity.  
• when you take them off of the computer, fill that space of time with something constructive and positive like doing something with a friend, doing something with you, reading a book or doing something creative

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• • The article is useful because it is relevant to my topic as it gives advice to parents about children who are having too much screen time and how they should be stopped as neuroimaging scan research proves it is impairing their developing brain.
    
    The introduction of the author (Victoria L. Dunckley) is evident on the site page and clearly shows she is an expert being a medical doctor for adolescent on this topic of matter. 
    
    The article is up to date, published on Feb. 27, 2014. 
• As a practitioner, I observe that many of the children I see suffer from sensory overload, lack of restorative sleep, and a hyperaroused nervous system, regardless of diagnosis—what I call electronic screen syndrome. These children are impulsive, moody, and can’t pay attention—much like the description in the quote above describing damage seen in scans.

  • The psychiatrist observed many young aged patients and discovered:
    The brains of the teenagers are working without any creative thinking and finding all solutions through the internet. The lives of the teenagers are so strongly attached to computers their brains can not operate without electronic screens giving them information which they trust more than real live people. They are always on their computers and so their brain get overloaded with stimulation of the computer screen and its content. The brains gets over hyperactive with all the screen time and watching TV on internet, media that they are not getting enough sleep (8 to 9 hours) and their nervous system getting anxious and not controllable. 
• the truth about the potential damage screen time is capable of imparting—particularly in a young, still-developing brain.

  • Parents of children with computer addiction has the responsibility to take away their computers or limit the time to help their children and to prevent their brains from damage.
• excessive screen-time appears to impair brain structure and function. Much of the damage occurs in the brain’s frontal lobe, which undergoes massive changes from puberty until the mid-twenties. Frontal lobe development, in turn, largely determines success in every area of life—from sense of well-being to academic or career success to relationship skills.

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